CARDIFF CITY defender Matthew Connolly wants the Bluebirds to put their away-day horror behind them by extending their perfect home record.

CARDIFF CITY defender Matthew Connolly wants the Bluebirds to put their away-day horror behind them by extending their perfect home record.

Malky Mackay’s men fell from the top of the Championship after an incredible 5-4 defeat at the hands of Charlton on Tuesday, a match they had led 2-0.

Three days before, they surrendered a one-goal lead to sink 2-1 away at Bolton, but they now have the chance to turn things around in the Welsh capital.

The Bluebirds entertain Hull in the Championship on Saturday and Middlesbrough a week later having already won all seven of their matches in front of their own fans so far this season.

Connolly, 25, insists they need to make that ‘magnificent seven’ a ‘notable nine’ to keep up the pressure at the top end of the table.

“Charlton was only one game. It’s three points. It’s gone. We can’t change it. We just have to bounce back from it,” said Connolly.

“We have to get on with looking to the Hull game on Saturday. Every time we’ve lost we have bounced back really well.

“When we were 2-0 up at Crystal Palace we lost that game, but then we were at home and won our next two. This is the first time we’ve lost two games in a row this season.

“We have two home games now, we’ve won all our home games and now we have to go out there and keep that going.

“I don’t see why we can’t make it nine wins. We’ve been playing very well at home. We’ve been very consistent. Teams tend to sit back against us at home. But we need to perform and score goals and keep clean sheets.

“If you win every home game and can go away and nick results that will stand us in very good stead.

“We will continue to try to win every home game, but we will have to improve away. We need to start winning away. We need to start picking up points away from home.”

Defeat at The Valley made it five losses on the road so far this season and was made all the more painful after the Bluebirds looked to be in total control of the encounter thanks to goals from Heidar Helguson and Joe Mason.

But the Addicks were level before the break and added three more in the second half.

Two injury-time strikes from Craig Noone and Aron Gunnarsson merely obscured how comprehensively the Bluebirds were beaten.

Connolly said he and his team-mates had been left bitterly disappointed by the reverse against a Charlton side who had only won once at home all season.

And he was at a loss to explain how a team with a perfect home record could pick up seven points out of 24 on the road and ship 18 goals in the process.

“We knew Charlton had had a bad result against Boro on the weekend and that their home form had not been that good,” said Connolly.

“We wanted to try to score early and get their fans turning against them. We knew they were short of confidence.

“And we scored two and at that stage, not that I was being over confident, but I thought, we’ve got this now. It didn’t happen, we made too many mistakes.

“Fair play to Charlton, I thought they worked very hard. But we gave away bad goals at bad times.

“I can’t really put my finger on the away form. I honestly don’t think we’ve played that badly and we’ve got two wins at Millwall and Ipswich which are both difficult places to go.

“I don’t think we are performing badly. If we can cut out mistakes and individual errors we can turn the defeats into points or even wins.”

On the personal front, Connolly has seen plenty of action since arriving at Cardiff in the summer from QPR.

Originally slotted in at centre-half, Bluebirds’ boss Malky Mackay has now moved him out to right-back to accommodate Ben Turner in the side.

Connolly admitted it is not his favoured position, adding: “I prefer to play centre-back. But it’s out of my hands, It’s the manager’s choice. I’m enjoying it. I like playing there. I don’t mind it at right-back. As long as I am on the pitch I’m happy.”

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